The IEDB team has conducted a meta-analysis on the emerging Hantavirus outbreak. The draft publication can be found here -
Hantavirus Meta-analysisMay20 (Final).pdf (706.6 KB)
Abstract
Significant global health concerns have been raised by the recent outbreak of human infections from the Andes strain of Hantavirus. In this brief report, we present a first analysis of B cell responses associated with this virus cataloged in the IEDB. The main conclusions are that a significant body of knowledge exists related to B cell responses both in humans (119 assays and 56 epitopes; 61% of the total assay records) and murine models (76 assays and 38 epitopes; 39% of the total assay records). In terms of antigenic targets, most of the responses reported are directed to the Envelope (or Envelopment protein) antigen (52 epitopes; 70% of the total records), followed by the Nucleoprotein (22 epitopes; 30% of the total records), and no records are found for the large L polymerase antigen. This is unsurprising given that the Envelope antigen is the main surface protein exposed in the mature virus. This protein is also the one targeted by most reported experimental vaccines. Relatively few of the antibody epitopes are associated with conformational and neutralizing epitopes (11% of the total records), indicating the potential need for further investigations in this space.
A similar analysis was repeated for the Orthohantavirus genus. Here, we found that an even greater body of knowledge exists related to B cell responses, both in humans (131 additional assays and 95 epitopes; 35% of the total assay records) and murine models (386 additional assays and 86 epitopes; 28.9% of the total assay records). In terms of antigenic targets, most of the responses reported are directed to the Nucleoprotein (237 epitopes; 22.1% of the total records), followed by the Envelope protein antigen (42 epitopes; 3.9% of the total records), and no records for the large L polymerase antigen. Relatively few of the antibody records are associated with neutralizing epitopes (6% of the total records), again underlining a potential need for further investigations in this space.
In conclusion, our analysis shows that Hantavirus Andes, in particular, and Hantaviruses in general are associated with B cell immunogenicity in humans and animal models alike, suggesting the feasibility of intervention based on vaccinations aimed at inducing neutralizing antibodies, and also based on post exposure administration of monoclonal antibodies, a potential of interest given the long post-exposure incubation time of the virus.